Northey strongly leaning toward re-election bid

DES MOINES – Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey said Monday his 2010 political campaign likely will be a re-election bid.

Northey, 49, a Spirit Lake Republican midway through his third year in Iowa's top agricultural post, said he expects to make a formal announcement on his political future by summer's end, but he's “leaning pretty hard” toward seeking a second term as ag secretary rather than making a bid for governor.

“I think I'm likely to run for secretary of ag again,” Northey said in an interview. “I really like what I'm doing and I feel we've got a lot of work to do yet. We'll see how it plays out, but right now I'm looking at probably running for secretary of agriculture.”

Northey's name has been included in a growing list of Republicans eyeing a bid for their party's 2010 gubernatorial nomination and a chance to challenge first-term Democratic Gov. Chet Culver next year.

He said Monday he is not ready to pull his name off that list, but he noted he is organizing a fundraising barbecue at the Iowa State fairground geared toward building support for a re-election bid.

“For right now, that's as far as I'll go,” Northey said. “It's a matter of timing. I do think that if a person is very serious about running for governor, that you want to be fairly aggressive in setting things up and opening the door and planning for it, and so far we've not done a lot of those things yet. But I think there's certainly time to do those things if we decided to do that.”

The billnorthey.com Web site currently is “under construction,” although it features a green, yellow and white “Northey for secretary of agriculture” decal at the bottom of the page.

Other Republicans mentioned as possible 2010 gubernatorial hopefuls are state Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone, Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong, U.S. Rep. Steve King of Kiron, former state Sen. Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny, state Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, state Rep. Rod Roberts of Carroll, Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats and Bettendorf businessman Mike Whalen.